Convenience is the greatest advantage of digitized banking solutions

New European Digital Banking Study by Mastercard highlights convenience as the greatest advantage of digitized banking solutions. Mastercard is the partner of choice for more than 30 digitized banks across Europe, who are offering new banking solutions to grow consumer affection and loyalty.

In a new Mastercard study*, people from eleven European countries shared their views on why digital innovation and solutions are so important for the future of financial services, commerce and retail. The study of European banking customers shows that convenience was the most significant advantage for digital banking solutions, with time-saving (70%) and ease of use (59%) being the key drivers. Six out of ten Europeans welcome digital solutions and believe that the digitization of the banking industry is making their lives easier and safer.

Today, Mastercard is a key driver and partner in delivering digital solutions, working with over 30 new digitized banks across Europe including N26, Holvi and Monzo, and many more around the world. As the leading global payments technology company Mastercard is helping all partners develop customer-oriented, convenient and safe solutions for today and tomorrow.

The study also demonstrates that customer loyalty towards their current bank is comparatively low: Nearly half of the consumers in Europe (49%) say they will consider switching to a digital bank at some point. Especially, in Germany consumers have little loyalty: 27% think of leaving their bank within the next 12 months. That is by far the highest rate in Europe whereas the Dutch are the most loyal. Only 7% state that they consider changing their bank and 52% want to stay.

Furthermore, European consumers believe that the process of digitization in the financial industry will affect bank branches. Two thirds think that bank branches will still exist in ten years but decrease in numbers whereas only 6% are convinced that bank branches will have ceased to exist in ten years’ time.

Other findings of the study are:

When asked what consumers would change within their current bank, if they could, their primary demand was “convenience”, wishing that their banks’ products were “available everywhere as well as easy to use” (42%).

The second most common answer was flexibility and 24/7 consultation service (27%).

More than 85% pursue banking digitally (online or mobile) at least once a month, and 38% even do it on a daily to weekly basis.

The most active users are the British (54%), followed by the Dutch (51%) and the Swedes (47%), doing digital banking at a daily to weekly basis in contrast to only 26% of the Swiss and 27% of the Hungarians at the bottom of the surveyed markets.

The study was conducted by Innofact AG and commissioned by Mastercard. 11.915 samples were taken from eleven European markets in: Italy (1084), Germany (1081), Spain (1081), France (1088), United Kingdom (1090), Poland (1082) Netherlands (1083), Sweden (1082), Switzerland (1088), Hungary (1076) and Russia (1080). The respondents were recruited by the Innofact online panel entscheiderclub.de and its international partner panels. The respondents are aged 18 years and above.